The Writer's Hour: Footprints on the Sands of Time

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Longfellow's Three Daughters / Longfellow National Historic Site

Can you guess who's who in this painting by T. B. Read? Papa describes the Longfellow girls as "Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra, and Edith with golden hair." Does that sound familiar? It's from one of his most famous poems, <em>The Children's Hour</em>. Papa affectionately wrote about the nightly antics of his daughters:

Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
That is known as the Children's Hour.